Savills Investment Management has invested €55.8m to buy food retail assets in the Netherlands and Ireland.
The international real estate investment manager said it paid €30m to buy the Enschede Zuid convenience centre in Enschede, Netherlands from DC Vastgoed.
The acquisition, which includes two supermarkets and 16 daily retail shops, was made on behalf of a pan-European food retail fund.
Savills IM said it has also invested €25.8m in a forward purchase deal to buy an asset in Dublin from developer Quintain Ireland. The property, with a total of around 5,600sqm of lettable space, is scheduled for completion by the end of the year.
The asset forms part of The Crossings, an urban village at the centre of the Adamstown district, where around 10,000 new homes are to be built by 2028.
Kathrin Michalzik, portfolio manager at Savills Investment Management, said: “The convenience centre in Enschede and the new development in Dublin are a perfect fit for the strategy of our fund. Long-term and inflation-linked leases, tenants with strong credit ratings, as well as the food retail sector’s extensive immunity to recessions ensure stable returns for our investors.
”In terms of further diversification, the investment focus is now on additional supermarket portfolios and neighbourhood centres across all European investment markets, particularly in Spain, Italy, the UK, Ireland, Benelux and the Nordics.”
Ian Jones, director of investment at Savills Investment Management, said: “With our strong European investment platform, we have secured two further attractive properties for our fund. We are also working on further transactions in the Netherlands, Nordics, Spain and Germany to invest the committed equity promptly.
”The systemically important food retail sector, for which physical shops remain key, continues to provide an attractive investment alternative in a challenging market environment.”
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